I don't know how I feel about email

Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso <me@xeiaso.net>

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diff --git a/blog/idk-about-email.markdown b/blog/idk-about-email.markdown
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+---
+title: "I don't know how I feel about email"
+date: 2023-07-16
+tags:
+  - satire
+  - email
+---
+
+<xeblog-hero ai="Counterfeit" file="uncertain-foxgirl" prompt="a girl with yellow eyes, pink hair, fox ears, a white hoodie, and a short skirt walking through a park; her hair is very long and is wearing a very uncertain look."></xeblog-hero>
+
+So recently I've been trying to use email and I just don't know how I
+should feel about it. There's a lot of core problems with it that seem
+to seep out to every part of the protocol, user experience, and the
+entire thing is just leaving me uncertain for its future.
+
+## I have to choose a server
+
+One of the biggest things that confuses me is that I have to choose a
+server to use email. I'm not really given explanations of what each of
+these servers mean and what the differences are, but I have heard that
+some servers can't interact with eachother due to petty administration
+disputes. I don't know which server I should pick, but my phone keeps
+trying to get me to use iCloud mail.
+
+A lot of my friends use this Gmail thing run by Google, but I don't
+know if I really want to put Google back in my life after I cut it
+out.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hmm">Does it even matter if everyone
+else you talk with uses Gmail anyways? Google still has copies of the
+conversations and their recent TOS change allows them to train AI
+models on user data.</xeblog-conv>
+<xeblog-conv name="Aoi" mood="rage">What? They can read my email? It's
+not encrypted until I try to read it? Can't you do some end-to-end
+encryption or something?</xeblog-conv>
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">Can and should are different
+words. PGP is hell. You don't want to.</xeblog-conv>
+<xeblog-conv name="Aoi" mood="facepalm">Oh god.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Also apparently there's no real way to migrate between email servers
+either, so whatever I choose is going to be my permanent home. Lots of
+online applications will tie into your email address (some even make
+your email address a primary key for your account with no way to
+change it!), so whatever email address I choose will probably have to
+be used forever. I can forward emails from an old account to a new
+account, but [Google is going to delete inactive
+accounts](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/12418290?hl=en)
+and I can't imagine that other providers aren't going to follow suit.
+
+Oh and if that server goes down and stays down, I lose access to any
+of my emails that I haven't downloaded yet.
+
+## I can't run my own server
+
+Okay, so if I have to use a server can't I just run my own server? I
+have an AnalogBrocean and I can set up an Ubuntu instance or something
+to act as a mailserver. It shouldn't be that complicated right?
+
+What do you mean spam is a thing? Doesn't the spamfilter take care of
+that?
+
+What do you mean email servers don't come with spamfilters by default?
+
+What do you mean that the default configuration of email servers means
+that I have to vigilantly monitor everything to ensure that bots don't
+send emails and destroy my reputation at unreasionable hours of the
+night?
+
+What do you mean that if someone else on my server chooses a bad
+password, bots will figure it out and start sending a torrent of spam?
+
+What do you mean that IP addresses aren't a reliable way to detect who
+people are?
+
+What do you mean that the spamfilter software takes 12 gigabytes of
+ram, 4 CPU cores, and 35 GB of local space in order to work?
+
+What do you mean I can do everything right but some AI model will get
+angry at me and all of the efforts I do to "fix" it are wasted time?
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Aoi" mood="rage">How does anyone deal with this
+shit?</xeblog-conv>
+
+## I don't know which client to use
+
+Once I have my email account (and maybe my own email server if I
+really hate myself), I need to connect to it with a client. Every OS
+comes with a mail client, but all of them suck (Apple Mail seems
+decent though?). If I open the App Store and search "email client" I
+get _hundreds_ of results. Same in the Google Play store. More if I
+look for clients for Windows. Even more if I look for clients for my
+Steam Deck. I don't know enough to know if these mail clients are
+legit or not. Which ones are reputable? Which ones are made by
+development teams I can trust? Which ones will support the kinds of
+emails I will read?
+
+Oh and even better, apparently Gmail is starting to lock down access
+to your emails with only a username and password in the interest of
+"security", so you have to go through convoluted hoops in order to
+check your email in something that isn't the gmail web UI. It is
+literally impossible for me to check my work mail in something like
+Aerc.
+
+And then comes the issue of clients and message formatting. When I
+compose and send an email, I type text in the box, drag in
+attachments, and maybe **bold** important things. Then I try to send
+my email to a friend and they tell me they can't read it and send back
+a bunch of HTML garbage. I don't get it. Why does the format of
+messages matter? I just want to send my emails and have my friends
+read them, but then I have to dig through confusing or impossible to
+set configuration options to only send things in "plain text" instead
+of formatted messages. My iPad doesn't have the option to send emails
+in "plain text".
+
+Apparently some smaller email servers will defederate with yours if
+you send HTML emails too, so if my client fucks something up in the
+eyes of another server admin, it could get my server defederated. What
+the hell kind of user experience is that?
+
+## Mailing lists
+
+So email has groups called mailing lists, but using them with many
+email clients is an exercise in futility. Apparently some of the
+biggest open source projects in the world are developed on these
+things? Every mailing list has their own unspoken rules on how you're
+supposed to use your client, reply to emails, and more.
+
+If you break these rules, you're threatened with banning. It's
+bullshit. I don't know how people deal with this. I just want to ask
+questions about the linux kernel, I don't want to have to entirely
+redo my entire setup on my iPad just to send clarifying questions back
+when I'm at a coffee shop. I don't care about "plain text", I care
+about getting the answer to my question.
+
+Maybe this is why Microsoft was looking at proposing the Linux kernel
+move to something more amenable to the modern age. They got shot down
+for this of course, but why can we have nice things when we have
+"simple configuration options" in a billionty email clients?
+
+---
+
+I give up on email. If you want to talk with me, you'll need to
+project to my astral sigil. You can find it in the upper left hand
+corner of the website. There's a villa in the northwest corner of the
+island. I'll be waiting there.
+
+<xeblog-toot url="https://pony.social/@cadey/110715083282612029"></xeblog-toot>
+
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+  "type": "Note",
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+  "published": "2023-07-07T02:01:05Z",
+  "url": "https://pony.social/@cadey/110670332949574140",
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+  "content": "<blockquote><p>Becoming incredibly deranged watching people jump between a half dozen mobile-only centralized algorithmic troughs because the equivalent of an email address is too hard</p></blockquote>",
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+  "published": "2023-07-14T23:41:41Z",
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